We were outside the location for the second day of shooting at 8:45 - a fairly civilised time. As location high on security we have to be assembled and in by 9 with no stragglers but….most of us there on time. A no show from one person but luckily they’re not vital to the shoot. Neill and Carl, DP and sound respectively, were stuck behind a crash on the M1 but arrive safe and sound on time.
As we are shifting stuff inside find out that Alex + 1 have gone off to get some breakfast. Cant hang around so head on up. As Adrian, Conran Zombie, has to leave by 1 PM we need to shift to get his shots done.
First shot on the log was SARAH coming out of the room after she has woken up. A tough shot to light as we are 2 floors up and cant shine the lights through the windows. Apart from that a pretty standard shot and we were on to the first zombie shot of the film. Gav had spent the first 2 hours making up Conran Zombie and he looked goresome. With the first zombie shots in the bag its on to the zombie attack.
This is the first big SFX of Zombie Undead and involved a machete attack to the zombies head. Gav did numerous tests for this one and came up with the idea of using a polystyrene head with a whole cut out and stuffed with a blood filled condom. Put a wig over it all and smack, when the machete hits the 'head' gore flies everywhere. Only had a couple of chances at this one due to time and supplies. First one worked ok but the second nailed it. Trouble with the polystyrene is that the machete bounces, We'll cut sharp before the bounce and get a pick up close up of blood splatting Sarah's face. A tense shot as well as Ruth had to hold the head above herself as the machete ( a real one ) was smashed into the head. A pressure shot for all and every cast and crew member was lined up to watch this one.
With that nailed it was onto the start of the dialog between Jay and Sarah. We kept pretty much to schedule through the day, a couple of Douglas Adams deadlines went wishing past but we did catch up.
We shot listed and storyboarded for more than we shot. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly events may have transpired that forced us to shoot in a different order than planned. For example on the Zombie Undead trailer shoot one of our two make up artists failed to show. With no warning it was too late to find a replacement so Gav, our SFX lead, had to do all the make up plus special effects and scenes were shot out of planned order. Secondly we may have shot faster than expected - hey miracles happen. However this has to be countered by the fact that you don’t want people hanging around for scenes that wont be shot that day. It’s a tricky compromise and one which I hope will become easier as the shoot progresses. Time to check out the rushes.
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Its that time of year again. Zombie Undead are closing up for the break so expect no more blogging for a week or two. During this time i shall continue to work on storyboards and shot lists and scheduling. Kris continues to edit and reherse Jay. Gav spends a gore filled fextive season messing with latex. Next year hopefully brings us completion of filming on Zombie Undead and the première in winter. Keep checking the blog for tutorials, make up guides and more.
